How to Play

Several teams vie for control of a university campus. Anyone with an @stanford.edu e-mail address can create an account and join a team. There is a limit of one account per player -- creating additional accounts may result in the player being banned from the game. Each player is assigned a small number of troops, which they can move around the map and conquer territories for their team. During each turn, players have several hours to give orders to their troops. At the end of the turn, all of the orders are processed. The team that conquers all the territories wins. Turns are processed once a day at 11:59 PM NEW TURN SCHEDULE -- see blog.stanfordturf.com for updates beginning on Sunday, February 24.

Players may place troops in any territory controlled by their team. This happens immediately and is visible to all players, even those on other teams. A territory is controlled by a team if that team has at least one troop on that territory. Should that troop leave the territory, they will lose control of it. Only one team may occupy a territory at a given time.

Players can order their troops to either MOVE to a friendly or ATTACK a hostile connected territory. Territories are considered connected if they share are adjacent and are within the same continent (see below). Connections between continents are denoted with a small black line. Any remaining troops will DEFEND a territory from possible attack.

1. All MOVE orders are processed first. Troops arriving in a territory count as defenders for that territory for upcoming battles during the turn. They do not defend the territory they are leaving.
2. ATTACKs are processed next.

• a. Attacks are processed in random order, troop-by-troop. Figuratively speaking, think of each attack by one troop as a card. These cards are then shuffled.
• b. A "card" is pulled off the top of the deck. The selected troop carries out its attack.
• c. A random defending troop is selected from the defending territory. If there are no defending troops left, the attacking troop moves into the territory and defends the territory from attack by other teams that may be attacking it.
• d. There is a 45% chance the attacker wins and a 55% chance the defender wins.
• e. If the attacker wins, the defending troop is killed off. The attacking troop's "card" is then placed at the bottom of the deck to be played again.
• f. If the defender wins, the attacking troop is killed off.
• g. This repeats until all the "cards" have been played.

Every player starts out with two troops. After every turn, players get additional "reinforcements" to place on the map.

1. PARTICIPATION BONUS: Every player gets one troop each turn by default
2. CONQUEST BONUS: If a team successfully takes a territory from another team (and holds it), then every player on that team gets an additional troop. Note that taking unoccupied territories (including territories vacated right before an attack) do not count as conquests. The exception is if two teams attack an unoccupied territory at the same time.
3. TERRITORY BONUS: Each teams gets 4 times the number of territories they control as a bonus. This is distributed randomly among the players.
4. ELIMINATION BONUS: Eliminating another team from a game results in a bonus of two times the number of players on the opposing team. This bonus is distributed randomly among the eliminating team.
5. CONTINENT BONUS: Teams can get bonuses by controlling certain sets of territories. Continent bonuses will gradually escalate over time. This bonus is distributed randomly among players on the occupying team. The current bonuses are:

   Border Color	Name	Troop Bonus
   	Shopping and Medical	70
   	Athletics	70
   	Escondido	70
   	Campus East	175
   	Campus South	140
   	Lake Lagunita Territories	140
   	Campus West	140
   	Campus Center	245